A presentation tool of any type - low or high tech have has existed in teacher toolboxes for a long time. Microsoft PowerPoint has existed since May 22, 1990 (32 years ago) and Google Slides initial release date was March 9, 2006 (17 years ago). Nothing new!
I remember the countless hours spent (on either presentation software) making presentations look just right.
Trying to find the perfect ratio of text to pictures.
Trying to find the right variety of layouts so my presentation was interesting and engaging.
Trying to not overwhelm the students with not a lot of one thing.
Only to repeat all of the above time wasters again to "improve" the presentation because I learned to use a new tool or discovered a new layout or new colour combinations. I didn't even mention the number of experiements that tool place with transitions and animations.
I stumbled upon, what I consider to be a Replicable Practices website that can help eliminate some of the time wasters above.
Wow, has it been that long? I cannot believe so much time has passed since my last post. Curious? I was. I took a moment to try and calculate how long it has been since my last post (in other words I tried to find a date-to-date calculator). Thanks to timeanddate.com I figured out that it has been 512 days from my last blog entry to this day or 1 year, 4 months, 26 days.
Alternatively, for those that like this sort of math stuff it has been:
44,322,383 seconds
738,706 minutes (rounded down)
12,311 hours (rounded down)
512 days (rounded down)
73 weeks (rounded down)
140.55% of a common year (365 days)
So why not follow up with an equally ancient web tool, RSS & Newsreaders.
This little unfamiliar icon refers to a news feed, or a Rich Site Summary. Web users can use a compatible browser or a news reader to stay informed. Users are able to stay informed by getting the newest information posted from the websites you most frequently visit. As an example this blog (shameless I know). Still confused? Check out the YouTube Video.
Imagine if you were gathering up to date / minute news on a current event or scientific discovery. Perhaps you are a history teacher covering a particular day in history or a technology teacher tracking the Internet of Things. Using an RSS enabled internet browser or news reader not only saves you time but also allows you to be right up to date to provide timely information to your students.
This makes teaching easy.
Well that may be a bit of an exaggeration, however
managing, consuming, broadcasting and reproducing information found
online has become more manageable, more efficient and more personable,
more exact and more relevant. Can I get a little help on how to
choose the sweetest oranges?
Several major sites such as Facebook and Twitter previously offered RSS feeds but have reduced or removed support. Additionally, widely used readers such as Shiira, FeedDemon, and Google Reader have been discontinued having cited declining popularity in RSS. However, RSS still remains a widely used standard. RSS support was removed in OS X Mountain Lion's versions of Mail and Safari, although the features were partially restored in Safari 8. As of August 2015, Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer include RSS support by default, while Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge do not. Additionally, reader services such as Feedly provide synchronization between desktop RSS readers and mobile devices.
Part of every teaching dilemma or more specifically part of the planning process when creating a lesson is finding ways to attract (buzzword: hook / engage) students into what knowledge or skills you are trying to share with them. Being an avid user of Microsoft Power Point for many lessons I had noticed that students were becoming bored or uninterested in Power Point presentations. Too much is too much. Not only were my students becoming unusually rowdy but they had a look on their faces that suggested "Again? Give us a break from Power Point." Searching for alternatives I remembered attending a meeting about technology in the classroom and jointing down a brief note on a new presentation tool called PowToon.
PowToon yells out to Teachers and enthusiastically says - "Flip your classroom, inspire, engage and delight your students."
"allows users to create colorful, visually engaging animated Powtoons (presentation - cartoon mashups) with drag-and-drop simplicity...PowToon wants to also make a difference in the education sector and our tool is designed to allow education professionals (and students) to create content that is visually engaging, captivating and fun to make.
Signing up for a free Flickr account was simple. The wonderful thing about the signup process was that any user has three options (the more options the better). Each user can sign up for a new account (associated with Yahoo), use an existing Yahoo ID or they can use an existing Facebook ID or Google ID. I already had a Yahoo Account (Renaissance Professor) therefore I did not have to memorize another signup name and password for a site that I may or may not use.
I am finding myself daydreaming about other nostalgic places and therefore decided to revisit a couple of childhood communities. I took a couple of snapshots with my iPhone 4s (enabled Geo-tagging), signed up for a Flickr Account, uploaded the photos, changed their privacy settings to public, reviewed the license agreement and tagged. I then decided to map the photos on the Flickr map. The process was easy and I can see how this tool can be addicting.
Here are the set of three photos that also mark earlier milestones in my life:
Avon Ave by Renaissance Professor, on Flickr
Keele Subway Station Outdoor Waiting Platform by Renaissance Professor, on Flickr
Keele Subway Station by Renaissance Professor, on Flickr
These spots are very important to me because this is where I grew up. What and where would I explore today? I cannot count the number of almost falls I had running down these steps at the Keele Subway Station. Never wanting to miss my bus as I heard the rumble of its engine as the bus pulled into the bay.
My photo experience and using Flickr was a positive one. Uploading pictures was easy. It took a while to get all the settings in the Flickr account just right but once they were set they became the default for every other photo I uploaded. I really liked placing the photos on the Flickr map. Enabling the Geo-Tagging feature on the phone is a great feature.
Teachers can use Flickr and associated tools in many ways. Consider an interactive and visual story line for writing assignments, historical associations to modern landmarks or photo journalism to virtually any topic.
Before creating a free Flickr account I decided to explore The Tour and read the FAQ.
I rummaged, searched, explored and discovered and interesting image that I share with you below. I suggest you do the same.
Angele Menard by H.A.T. Photography, on Flickr
This old barn can be found at the Adamson Estate, which forms the eastern boundary of Port Credit, Ontario. Why is this old barn significant? The barn represents an important milestone in my life, awhile back I also had my photograph taken at that exact spot.
The students in my class are very opinionated. I often hear them get into fiery discussions with their peers about who is the best basketball player, favourite recording artist or favourite team in any given sport. They are also very good at coming up with advantageous reasons as to why they should not be in school uniform or why they should not receive a zero for an assignment they may or may not hand in. However when student's are asked to write an opinion essay they become so burdened, listless and lethargic in getting pencil to paper (fingers to keyboard). Of course I go over with the class countless examples and writing guides on how to write and effective opinion essay but somehow they do not seem to enthusiastic about it (I do not blame them, since the my old way was a snooze). Personally I happen to think it is the term 'essay' extinguishes their writing flame despite the fact that they can argue with some incredible points of view. One idea that I would like to explore to further my own replicable practices when it comes to delivering a lesson about writing an opinion essay is through the use of Comic Creators.
Stephen Downes (http://www.downes.ca) is a Senior Researcher with the E-Learning Research Group, National Research Council Canada, Moncton, New Brunswick. Comments on this article can be sent to the author at stephen@downes.ca.
